Rosalind Russell

[8] Norma Shearer (The Divorcee) fronts an all-star, all-female cast in George Cukor’s adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce’s The Women. Shearer plays a happily married woman of privilege who learns through the gossipy grapevine that her husband is having an affair with another woman, played by Joan Crawford. Shearer struggles under the dueling influences of her mother (Lucile Watson) and her so-called ‘friends’, which include …

[5] Jean Harlow and William Powell star in this romantic comedy about a Broadway singer who impulsively marries a wealthy playboy (Franchot Tone) before realizing her true love is really her long-time agent (Powell). Powell’s droll, sardonic humor fits Reckless nicely, but Harlow isn’t quite charismatic enough to make her part work. It doesn’t help that her character is a singer and a dancer — …

[6] Robert Montgomery is a care-free painter and Rosalind Russell is a socialite looking for a more rustic lifestyle. In the tradition of screwball comedy, the unlikely lovers get married and revel in their poverty. But after Montgomery’s talent catches the notice of a stuffy gallery owner (Monty Woolley), the two start living the high life… until Russell starts feeling a little deja vu. Live, …

[7] It’s surprising Errol Flynn didn’t make more screwball comedies, because he’s completely at home in this ‘who’s duping who’ comedy, outrunning the guard dogs, shaking hands with people in side-by-side moving cars, and carrying on romantic telephone conversations with two women simultaneously. In Four’s a Crowd, he’s teamed with his regular leading lady Olivia de Havilland, as well as Rosalind Russell (in a newspaper …

[10] A young boy is orphaned and left in the care of his only living relative, an eccentric aunt who defies convention and encourages discovery. The pair endure challenge after challenge in an episodic narrative that ends in the boy becoming a man and getting married, a decision that threatens to finally tear them apart. It’s so rare for me to fall this much in …

[9] Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell headline this quintessential screwball comedy from director Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby, Ball of Fire). His Girl Friday is based on a stage play and a previous film adaptation (The Front Page) about a newspaper editor (Grant) who’ll stop at nothing to keep his ex-wife and ace reporter (Russell) from quitting the newspaper business… and their marriage. The pressure …